PINCKNEYVILLE (WSIL)---Karen and Roger Heape found themselves testing positive for COVID-19 in early September.
At first, symptoms were mild.
"Started feeling really weak. All we did was sit and not do much of anything. We couldn't eat anything, it didn't taste good," Karen said.
"Just fatigued mainly," Roger added.
The Heapes then took a turn for the worse and decided they needed to go to the hospital and receive medical attention.
"I told my daughter, I said, 'You need to come get us and take us to the emergency room.' And we were bad then. My oxygen was down to 63. So it was time to go," Karen said.
Days after arriving at Pinckneyville Community Hospital, both Karen and Roger had to be intubated.
"Scary. Very scary," Roger said about the experience.Â
"It was. It was very scary, and to think that our kids could have lost both of us at the same time, and not have the chance to tell anybody bye," Karen added.Â
Both Roger and Karen were on the vent for only a few days, but recovery has been challenging.
"It's tough. You lose all your muscle strength, everything, you just gotta build yourself back up. It takes awhile," Roger said.Â
Roger also said the experience changed his outlook on how he views COVID-19.
"I was bullheaded, didn't believe it. I was trying to get all the facts I could on it. Every time I found something that I thought was credible then I found something that counteracted it. I didn't know what to do," Roger said.
"It's like this is horrible. We should have went ahead and got those shots," Karen added.Â
Now, the Heapes encourage everyone to get their vaccine in order to prevent more people from going through their experience.
"I think that everybody should go ahead and get the COVID shot, and all the myths that they say about the things that it does to you, you gotta live with it and take the chance, because this was horrible," said Karen.
"I never wanna go through anything like that again," said Roger.
